Union Minister of Coal and Mines Shri G. Kishan Reddy today inaugurated the National Landslide Forecasting Centre at GSI, Dharitri Campus, Salt Lake City, Kolkata. Minister also launched the Bhusanket Web Portal and Bhooskhalan Mobile App. The programme was graced by dignitaries from various disaster management agencies and stakeholder organizations besides Director General, GSI, Shri Janardan Prasad, and other senior officials of the organisation.

The NLFC is a pioneering initiative aimed at landslide hazard mitigation in India. Soon after this inauguration, residents of Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Nilgiri districts will be benefitted from live forecasting report to be shared with them since 20^th July 2024. It will in due course issue early warning bulletins for all landslide-prone states, operationalizing the regional Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) nationwide by 2030. Equipped with advanced technology, the NLFC will provide early information to local administration and communities, update landslide inventories, and integrate real-time rainfall and slope instability data for enhanced forecasting accuracy.

The launch of the Bhusanket Web Portal marks a major step towards disaster risk reduction. This web portal will facilitate the dissemination of relevant data and information on landslide hazards, initiating short-range and medium-range landslide forecasting in the country. Integrated with the Bhusanket Web Portal, the user-friendly Bhooskhalan Mobile App will enable quick dissemination of daily landslide forecasts and allow stakeholders to share and update spatial and temporal information on landslide occurrences. The app is available on Bhusanket web portal and will soon be available on Google Play Store.

In his address, Shri G. Kishan Reddy emphasized GSI’s critical role in disaster management, particularly in landslide hazard mitigation. Minister commended the GSI officers for their dedication in establishing the NLFC and urged officers to work diligently towards fulfilling the nation’s mineral and disaster management needs, aligning with the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and achieving Viksit Bharat by 2047.

The inauguration of the NLFC, and the launch of the Bhusanket Web Portal and Bhooskhalan Mobile App, are landmark achievements for GSI and a testament to its commitment to advancing disaster preparedness and safety in India. The event underscores GSI's ongoing efforts to leverage technology and innovation for the nation's sustainable development, resource management, and disaster mitigation.

Earlier in the day, Minister visited the Geological Survey of India campus. The visit commenced at the Central Headquarters (CHQ) campus, where minister was welcomed by Director General, GSI, Shri Janardan Prasad. Minister chaired a review meeting to assess the ongoing activities and achievements of GSI. During this meeting, he underscored GSI’s pivotal role in baseline data generation, augmenting the mineral resources of the country and policies, particularly focusing on landslides, and congratulated the officers for their tireless efforts in advancing geological studies and mineralexploration.

GSI has significantly expanded from its initial focus on coal exploration to include mapping rock types, geological structures, and exploring strategic and critical minerals. Notably, the number of exploration programs for critical minerals has increased from 127 last year to 196 out of total number of 450 exploration programmes this year. The successful launch of the National Geoscience Data Repository (NGDR) and the migration of the OCBIS portal to the OCI cloud are testaments to GSI’s commitment to innovation and efficiency.

About Geological Survey of India

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) was set up in 1851 primarily to find coal deposits for the Railways. Over the years, GSI has not only grown into a repository of geo-science information required in various fields in the country but has also attained the status of a geo-scientific organisation of international repute. Its main functions relate to creating and updating of national geoscientific information and mineral resource assessment. These objectives are achieved through ground surveys, air-borne and marine surveys, mineral prospecting and investigations, multi-disciplinary geoscientific, geo-technical, geo-environmental and natural hazards studies, glaciology, seismo-tectonic study and carrying out fundamental research.

GSI’s chief role includes providing objective, impartial and up-to-date geological expertise and geoscientific information of all kinds, with a focus on policy making decisions, commercial and socio-economic needs. GSI also emphasizes on systematic documentation of all geological processes both surface and subsurface, of the country and its offshore areas. The organization carries out this work through geological, geophysical, & geochemical surveys using the latest does so by using the latest and most cost-effective techniques and methodologies.

GSI’s core competence in survey and mapping is continuously enhanced through accretion, management, coordination and utilization of spatial databases (including those acquired through remote sensing. It functions as a ‘Repository’ for the purpose and uses the latest computer-based technologies for dissemination of geoscientific information and spatial data, through cooperation and collaboration with other stakeholders in the Geo-informatics sector.

GSI, headquartered in Kolkata, has six regional offices located in Lucknow, Jaipur, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Shillong and Kolkata and state unit offices in almost all states of the country. GSI is an attached office to the Ministry of Mines.

****

Beena Yadav/ Shuhaib T